Wednesday, November 19, 2008

1 month down 17 to go.

This week was ótimo!(great). We went proselyting on friday and I was scared out of my mind thursday night cause I thought that it was going to be really scary and I don´t really speak português yet but let me tell you....it was the best day yet! The Lord really takes care of his missionaries. I prayed to have courage, to have the spirit, and the gift of tongues and he blessed me with all three. It was fantastic. We met 4 people who spoke english, which was cool, and a whole bunch of other people. We talked to this man about how God loves all of us and has restored his gospel on the earth through a prophet and also revealed the book of mormon. He talked to us for a while just asking questions and stuff. Then we decided instead of giving him a pass-along card, we would give him book of mormon. It was amazing. He seemed genuinely interested. He was asking us why we chose to talk to him out of all the people on the street. He seemed really touched that we were sharing a message with him. It was soo cool. We met another girl who said she had studied philosophy in New York City and had a lot of questions about life. We gave her a pass-along card and told her that the book would answer many questions. It was so cool. We also met another woman and shared our message with her and she was so sweet. We gave her a book of mormon too and told her to read Moroni 10 and the introduction. We told her it contained a promise that if she would read the book of mormon and pray to know if it was true that God would answer her and tell her that it was. She seems genuinely interested too. Before we parted ways she wanted to make sure that she understood which chapter she was supposed to read and then gave us both hugs. She was so nice. Sure, there were people that listened to the message and took the card to be polite, and a few that just shrugged us off and didn´t want to listen, but the people that really showed interest made up for all those other people. We truly had the Lords help and guidance as we walked around. It was a place called Avonida Paulista or something like that. Apparently its equivalent to Wall Street for Brasil. There were a lot of people walking around. It was so great. It really made me want to work on my português so that I can share more. The Lord definitely blessed us though and we were able to talk to many people and understand and answer most of the questions people were asking us. Wow. What a wonderful day that was.

Today we got to go to the São Paulo Temple. It was beautiful. They have stained glass windows in the front and in the celestial room. It was cool. For lunch today, our teacher took us out to a restaurant where they go around and cut off pieces of meat right on your plate. It was interesting. I actually ate a little chicken heart. It wasn´t bad. It tasted pretty good but it was very chewy. I really like getting to know a new culture. Its cool to experience new things like that. Oh yeah, on our way to proselyting....we saw a Sam´s club...and a walmart. Haha. Apparently they have them here.

On sunday we had a fireside (like we always do) and President Jackson and his wife spoke. They are the mission presidents of the São Paulo Interlagos mission. Guess where they´re from? Bountiful. Guess who´s ward they´re in? Nana and Pàpa! I was pretty excited when they started talking about Bountful that I had to run up and talk to them afterwards. It was pretty cool. Its strange how small the world really is.

I was showing my district pictures of my family the other day and my teacher was looking at them. He stopped at one of the pictures of dad and said, Wow! He looks like a really cool person. I was just like, what? Haha. He said he thought dad just looked really happy. Then yesterday I was talking about how I spent the last three weeks before I came here at home and how my mom and I played video games all the time. Paçanha (my teacher) was like, holy cow! I want to meet your parents. They sound so cool. I assured him that they are. I really do miss you. My district probably gets sick of me talking about you. It seems like its a regular occurance that I bring you up. Sounds like things are good at home though. I just wish I could be there. Oh well, I´ll spend Christmas in Brasil I guess. Haha.

My mission address is

Brazil Recife MissionRua São Francisco, 110/102
Paissandu-Recife-PE
52010-020
Brazil

I love you so much! And miss you tons! Com Amor, Sister Ortolani

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